Strategic Resources Review Follow-up on Candidate Actions
National Aeronautics and
Space Administration
Office of the Administrator
Washington, DC 20546-0001
SEP 1 3 2001
TO: Distribution
FROM: AA/Chief of Staff
SUBJECT: Strategic Resources Review Follow-up on Candidate Actions
The Administrator and I wish to express our appreciation to each of you for devoting this past weekend to the Strategic Resource Review exercise. We recognize the personal sacrifice this imposed on each of you and your support staff. We also recognize the extraordinary budgetary stress that we are operating under has been further exacerbated by the past week’s horrific events. Nonetheless, in keeping with the President’s guidance, it is incumbent on us as Agency leaders to get on with the business of establishing our priorities within an increasingly constrained fiscal environment. While we still have a long way to go before our work is complete, you all managed to surface significant issues that will help us establish priorities and prepare for the future.
Provided as attachments are the following:
- A consolidated list of actions generated at the September 7-9 meeting; and
- A template for responding to the actions
Please review item 1 to ensure that the actions have been correctly stated and assigned. If there are issues, please follow up with Sue Garman by noon on Friday, September 14.
We want to emphasize that the attached list of candidate actions is preliminary; some actions should be implemented while, after examination, others will prove to be unsuitable. Additionally between our offsite and this letter, this week’s terrible tragedy has brought heightened security to our attention. If any of the candidate actions are inappropriate in light of these events, please factor that into your response. In any case, use your best judgment and come to our next meeting with recommendations.
Please provide your action responses per the proposed format (item 2) via e-mail to Sue Garman at sgarman@hq.nasa.gov by 4:00 p.m. EST on Tuesday, September 18. I know that many of your staff are feeling the burden of a heavy workload, so I ask that you provide the greatest definition to those items assigned to you that promise a significant payoff within the budget horizon (in terms of fundamental change, FTE’s, or dollars). In no case should safety or the support to primary mission or key secondary and transformational activities be compromised. Other candidate actions will be fleshed out more fully at a later date. We intend to meet for several hours on Wednesday, September 19, to review you inputs. More details on this meeting will be forthcoming soon.
If you have a need to update your workforce numbers, updates should be provided to Craig Conlin by September 28
Distribution:
Officials-in-Charge of Headquarters Offices
AI/Dr. Mulville
AB/Mr. Christensen
AE/Mr. Keegan
AO/Mr. Holcomb
AS/Dr. Olsen
B/Mr. Peterson
F/Ms. Novak
I/Mr. Schumacher
J/Mr. Sutton
M/Mr. Rothenberg
P/Mr. Mahone (Acting)
R/Mr. Venneri
S/Dr. Weiler
Y/Dr. Asrar
Directors, NASA Centers
ARC/Dr. McDonald
DFRC/Mr. Petersen
GRC/Mr. Campbell
GSFC/Mr. Diaz
JSC/Mr. Estess (Acting)
KSC/Mr. Bridges
LaRC/Dr. Creedon
MSFC/Mr. Stephenson
SSC/Mr. Craig (Acting)
Director, Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Dr.Elachi
Cc:
Officials-in-Charge of Headquarters Offices
AA/Ms. Garman
L/Mr. Bingham (Acting)
Pre-decisional Information
STRATEGIC RESOURCE REVIEW: CONSOLIDATED LIST OF CANDIDATE ACTIONS
September 10, 2001
NO. | CANDIDATE ACTION | ASSIGNEE | |
SPACE SHUTTLE | |||
1 | Privatize the Space Shuttle by CY04 flight and ground systems, mission planning and operations, and crew health care | R/Rothenberg | |
2 | Expand reimbursable marker for human space flight activities (e.g., OV-102 flights, space flight participants, brand name ads) | M/Rothenberg, JSC/Estess | |
3 | Involve Michoud facilities/activities in shuttle privatization efforts | M/Rothenberg, MSFC/Stephenson | |
4 | Identify optimal astronaut complement/composition and resources | JSC/Estess | |
5 | Explore commercialization of flight surgeons at JSC | JSC/Estess | |
6 | Cancel JSC small EMU | JSC/Estess | |
7 | Ensure KSC retains insight/oversight capability thru shuttle privatization | KSC/Bridges | |
8 | Close Shuttle Engineering Support Room at MSFC’s HOSC (dependent on MSFC’s role in shuttle privatization) consistent with provisions of appropriations/authorization report language) | MSFC/Stephenson | |
INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION | |||
9 | Negotiate International partner lab/hab contribution | I/Schumacher | |
10 | Negotiate how international partners could fund an X-38 crew return vehicle | I/Schumacher | |
11 | Determine how international partners could support operational requirements/research through non-conventional means | I/Schumacher U/Olsen | |
12 | Find savings in addition to the following: efficiencies (lab/facility closures, right-size corps/resources, outsourcing, aircraft elimination, partnerships); ISS rates; ISS power lab consolidation; cancel X38/ECLSS engineering | M/Rothenberg | |
13 | Accelerate establishment of Non-Governmental Organization to manage ISS research; determine impact of decision on cost, schedule, FTEs, etc. | U/Olsen | |
NASA TELEVISION | |||
14 | Examine privatizing (or other options) NASA TV | AP/Mahone | |
15 | Examine television infrastructure across Agency | AP/Mahone | |
16 | Provide alternate info sources (web streaming, et.) as alternatives to NASA TV | AP/Mahone | |
CONSOLIDATE/OUTSOURCE | |||
17 | Consolidate grants processing at 1-2 Centers | AB/Christensen, H/Luedtke | |
18 | Consolidate travel processing | AB/Christensen | |
19 | Consolidate credit card payments | AB/Christensen | |
20 | Consolidate voucher payments | AB/Christensen | |
21 | Consolidate routine human resource processing | AB/Christensen | |
22 | Consolidate incremental funding of contracts | AB/Christensen | |
23 | Consolidate science database management: consider outsourcing | AS/Olsen | |
24 | Consider outsourcing plating shops: determine if common Agency source is available | J/Sutton | |
NO. | CANDIDATE ACTION | ASSIGNEE | |
25 | Consider outsourcing machine/fabrication shops unless time critical need exists or need cannot be met by outside supplier or work involves development of experimental process | J/Sutton | |
26 | Consider outsourcing and/or consolidating calibration and test facilities (not a candidate for a one-size-fits-all solution) | J/Sutton | |
27 | Consider outsourcing warehouses | J/Sutton | |
28 | Consider outsourcing and/or consolidating receiving, inspection, and test facilities | J/Sutton | |
29 | Consider consolidating technical wet film labs | J/Sutton | |
30 | Consider outsourcing wind tunnel operations | R/Venneri | |
31 | Consider outsourcing DFRC facility operations and shops | DFRC/Peterson | |
32 | Consolidate Base Operations Contracts at GRC/Plumbrook | GRC/Campbell | |
33 | Consider outsourcing GSFC training function | GSFC/Diaz | |
34 | Consider commercializing GSFC visitor functions | GSFC/Diaz | |
35 | Consider consolidating weather service and/or transitioning to a national service | KSC/Bridges | |
36 | Consider commercializing KSC launch guest operations | KSC/Bridges | |
37 | Consider consolidating NASA/DoD propulsion facilities thru the NRPTA | SSC/Craig | |
38 | Consider consolidating NASA propulsion test facilities through RFTMB | SSC/Craig | |
39 | Consider consolidating JSC arcject with ARC arcjet facility | JSC/Estess, ARC/McDonald | |
UNIVERSITY RESEARCH PARKS and PARTNERSHIPS | |||
40 | Develop ARC research park | ARC/McDonald | |
41 | Examine creating DFRC aerospace research, training, and education consortia in local area | DFRC/Peterson | |
42 | Explore GRC research park development | GRC/Campbell | |
43 | Explore GRC technology park development | GRC/Campbell | |
44 | GSFC Space science-Planetary: examine transforming into UARC | GSFC/Diaz | |
45 | JSC research park: Determine how JSC could build a research park (e.g., Ames), resources required, etc. | JSC/Estess | |
46 | KSC SERPL: Examine transition of life sciences activities to SERPL (partnership with FSRI and UF’s Center for Space and Agric. Biotech Research Institute) | KSC/Bridges | |
47 | Establish KSC space commerce park (partnership with Spaceport Florida Authority) | KSC/Bridges | |
48 | Create LaRC National Institute of Aerospace | LaRC/Creedon | |
49 | Expand MSFC NSSTC to cover microgravity and optics (and do not backfill) | MSFC/Stephenson | |
50 | Partner with universities and transition Center libraries to them | Center Directors | |
51 | Establish Research Engineering and Technology Insititues | R/Venneri | |
52 | Transfer spacecraft extended mission operations to universities | S/Weiler | |
53 | Partner with university re: GRC icing tunnel | GRC/Campbell | |
54 | Establish GRC Microgravity institute | GRC/Campbell | |
55 | Establish GRC Aerospace park | GRC/Campbell | |
56 | Broaden/strengthen NSBRI | JSC/Estess | |
57 | Develop Engineering Research Institute to provide leadership in research and applied engineering in concert with academia/industry | JSC/Estess | |
NO. | CANDIDATE ACTION | ASSIGNEE | |
58 | KSC Spaceport and Range Technologies | KSC/Bridges | |
59 | Create University/LaRC Low Turbulence Pressure Tunnel partnership | LaRC/Creedon | |
60 | Initiate earth science applications university centers of excellence | SSC/Craig | |
GOVERNMENTAL | |||
61 | Consider establishing DFRC National Aerospace Flight Research | DFRC/Petersen | |
62 | Examine establishment of Space Academy at JSC | JSC/Estess | |
63 | Evaluate approach to establishing KSC Federal Spaceport | KSC/Bridges | |
NEW WAYS OF DOING BUSINESS WITH NASA | |||
64 | Develop distributed collaborative engineering | AB/Keegan | |
65 | Establish common I/T infrastructure: provide standard desktop software loads Agency-wide | AO/Holcomb | |
66 | Establish common I/T infrastructure: establish coporate Agency-wide electronic directory of people, places, things | AO/Holcomb | |
67 | Establish common I/T infrastructure: define/implement web management structure | AO/Holcomb | |
68 | Establish common I/T infrastructure: establish secure nomadic access to provide secure web-enabled access to files and applications | AO/Holcomb | |
69 | Establish common I/T infrastructure: establish I/T secrutiy architecture to create NASA-wide external firewall architecture for internal NASA applications | AO/Holcomb | |
70 | Publications: Establish policy regarding printing, distribution, storage, disposal | AO/Holcomb, J/Sutton | |
71 | Develop common grants package/process | AS/Olsen | |
72 | Expand Human Resource options: use of IPAs, pay banding, extended terms, etc. | F/Novak | |
73 | Standardize organizational coding | F/Novak, B/Peterson | |
74 | Establish SBIR/venture capital partnership | R/Venneri | |
75 | Commercialize Stennis gas production, storage, and onsite distribution | Stennis/Craig | |
PARTNERSHIPS | |||
76 | JPL Earth Science: Build broader customer base (DoD and others) to deliver aggressive radar-based results program: work with Sam Armstrong/Partnership Council | S/Weiler, JPL/Blachi | |
77 | Partner with DoD on large optics and related areas for space-based observation | Y/Asrar, MSFC/Stephenson | |
78 | Explore options for building a DFRC National Science Platform Aircraft consortium | DFRC/Peterson | |
79 | Explore options for partnering with DoD/industry to form National Aerospace Flight Center | DFRC/Peterson | |
80 | Explore partnership on Aircraft Landing Dynamics Facility | LaRC/Creedon | |
FACILITY CLOSURES | |||
81 | Explore use of Rocket Propulsion Test Management Board for disposition/consolidation of Agency propulsion test facilities | M/Rothenberg | |
NO. | CANDIDATE ACTION | ASSIGNEE | |
82 | Evaluate closures of MSFC Payload Operations Integration Center and transfer of functions to JSC | R/Rothenberg, JSC/Estess, MSFC/Stephenson | |
83 | Mothball JSC Manipulator Development Facility; convert RMS training to graphics-based | JSC/Estess | |
84 | Place JSC Thermal Vac Chamber A on standby | JSC/Estess | |
85 | Evaluate closure of JSC on-site main library effective FY04 | JSC/Estess | |
86 | Evaluate closure of LaRC Impact Dynamics Research Facility after FY03 | LaRC/Creedon | |
87 | Evaluate closure of additional MSFC facilities | MSFC/Stephenson | |
OTHER | |||
88 | Extend refresh schedule for most ODIN-supplied PCs | AO/Holcomb | |
89 | Establish agency-wide contract for cell phones/pagers, supplies/materials | J/Sutton | |
90 | Dispose of Center administrative aircraft except where necessary for time criticality or unusual circumstances (e.g., crew family transport) | J/Sutton | |
91 | Reincorporate Wide Area Network portion of CSOC into Program Information Systems Missions Services Contract | M/Rothenberg | |
92 | Transform JSC life sciences into three functions: operational aspects for astronaut crew health, JSC bridge between operational support and peer-reviewed research, and peer reviewed research | U/Olsen | |
93 | JSC earth science: Review requirement for earth science at JSC | Y/Asrar | |
94 | Get out of lines of business (outsource functions that are commercially available unless there is a time criticality requirement or function involves advanced development) | Center Directors | |
95 | Prioritize educational outreach programs | Center Directors | |
96 | Develop aggressive tech transfer delivery system
| Center Directors (profile) AI/Christensen TBD | |
97 | Explore focusing NASA/national UAV development/flight test capability at DFRC/Edwards | R/Venneri | |
98 | Evaluate phasing out earth science civil servants at MSFC; maintain support through competed grant work | GSFC/Diaz | |
99 | Pursue development of research park to do earth science work at MSFC | GSFC/Diaz LaRC/Creedon MSFC/Stephenson | |
100 | Identify 10 percent overhead/burden saving at JPL | JPL/Elachi | |
101 | Mothball or fund operator for JSC lunar sample curatorial facility | JSC/Estess | |
102 | Explore options for reducing cost of JSC contractor issues | JSC/Estess | |
103 | Evaluate methods for reducing resource investment in special events at JSC | JSC/Estess | |
104 | Explore alternate funding sources for JSC Longhorn Project | JSC/Estess | |
105 | Re-evaluate all JSC non-reimbursible agreements based on JSC benefit | JSC/Estess | |
106 | Explore balanced agreements on personnel exchanges with all federal agencies | AB/Christensen | |
107 | Pursue providing totally digital photo lab at JSC in FY03 | JSC/Estess | |
108 | Commercialize CSOC | JSC/Estess | |
NO. | CANDIDATE ACTION | ASSIGNEE | |
109 | Competitive source with industry, DoD, DoE, or Stennis for WSTF functions | JSC/Estess | |
110 | Implement virtual engineering environment to facilitate consolidation of JSC/MSFC engineering functions | JSC/Estess MSFC/Stephenson | |
111 | Develop innovative process improvements in the areas of HSF customer integration and hazard analysis | JSC/Estess | |
112 | Phase out Super Guppy after S6 delivery | JSC/Estess | |
113 | Eliminate G-1 by CY02 | JSC/Estess | |
114 | Store one SCA | JSC/Estess | |
115 | Evaluate savings from retirement of KC-135 | JSC/Estess | |
116 | Discontinue ICM caretaker support: abandon HW | JSC/Estess | |
117 | Maximize use of off-site processing facilities | KSC/Bridges | |
118 | Authorize non-govt. use of on-site facilities | KSC/Bridges | |
119 | Increase collaboration for Spaceport and Range technologies with other Centers, states, USAFD, FAA, academia | KSC/Bridges | |
120 | Establish UARC/FFRDC for spaceport and range technologies (including fabrication portions of prototype lab) | KSC/Bridges | |
121 | Lead SLI "operations" partnerships (in support of MSFC) with other Centers and USAF | KSC/Bridges | |
122 | Seek alternative financing for Second Generation RLV full scale development (per Szalai SLI External Requirements Assessment Team) | MSFC/Stephenson | |
123 | Consider transferring MSFC ECLSS engineering and TMAS engineering to JSC | MSFC/Stephenson | |
124 | All engine testing (present and future — including SLI) will be managed by SSC (not development testing, however)
| SSC/Craig | |
REVIEW | |||
125 | Review how many of life science SSCs at JSC might go into a research park |
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